To dissipate potentially damaging heat during operations, integrated circuit (IC) products may include thermally conductive structures such as a heat spreader and/or a heat sink in thermal contact with IC components (such as dies). These structures may be attached to the IC components using a thermal interface material (TIM), such as a polymer-based TIM (PTIM) or a solid, pre-formed solder TIM (STIM).
The performance of existing STIMs may be limited by, among other things, a relatively thick bond line thickness (BLT) (e.g., 200-400 microns) which adds bulk to the IC product, the undesirable voids that may be formed as solvent is driven out of a STIM during cure, the risk of deforming pre-formed STIM during pick-and-place operations, and the long heating times required for sufficient cure. Existing PTIMs may be able to achieve smaller BLTs than STIMs, but have poorer thermal performance (e.g., a bulk thermal conductivity of 2-5 watts/Kelvin-meter, versus approximately 80 watts/Kelvin-meter for some pre-formed STIMs).